Melody Lee Appointed To Global Director Of Book By Cadillac

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Cadillac clearly has big plans for its Book by Cadillac service, which is currently undergoing a pilot program in New York City. Now, the service has a new director, and it’s a familiar face.

Melody Lee, previously the director of brand marketing, has been appointed as the Global Director of Book by Cadillac, according to her LinkedIn profile. Per the job description, she will be responsible for “the successful growth of both Book as the luxury vehicle subscription offering it is today, as well as leading the Cadillac’s team’s charge into future innovation areas.”

Book by Cadillac lets participants rent a Cadillac Platinum or V-series vehicle for $1,500 per month. The sum includes insurance, maintenance, doorstep and white-glove delivery and access to every Cadillac vehicle on sale today. The program will soon exit the pilot stage of the program, and Cadillac is deciding how it can utilize its expansive dealership network to support Book’s rollout to other markets.

Lee will report directly to Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen in her new role and her appointment was effective as of October 1, 2017.

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20 Comments

I actually love this idea but hope the $1,500.00 per month price is because of NYC and not the number they expect for the rest of the country. At $1,000.00 or so, I would move to the BOOK model when my CT6 lease is up. Currently, I pay about $725.00 a month + approximately $175.00 for insurance. To have the flexibility to go from a CT6 to an Escalade based on needs or the weather here in Michigan would be a great benefit but not for the delta between $900.00 a month I currently pay and the $1,500.00 they are asking. Get me closer and I’m in.

I wish they would do this for Chevrolet. Much of the value of this comes from the variety of vehicles being offered. Chevy has a wider array of vehicles, so the relative value of this approach could be higher in the Chevrolet line.

Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen is obviously smitten with Melody Lee in giving her this promotion; but it could be a two edge sword because the higher Ms Lee goes in the General Motors hierarchy, the more will be expected especially as Cadillac sales in the United States has been horrible and if it wasn’t for the sales success of Cadillac in China there might be discussions for major firings at Cadillac including de Nysschen and Lee.

My first thought was “oh great, the whole program is now F$%ked, and Melody will make even more $”, but after reading the article now I’m thinking “Johan and Melody are defiantly in each others pants”.

It is two parts: 1) Johan must be smitten with Melody because her resume doesnt warrant such a promotion even if she is a hard worker and 2) Johan knows he has to please his Chinese counterparts, whose market is keeping Cadillac alive and for which they will derive most of their sales from in the future.

Is this a promotion ?
Book is not at all as important as being the director of brand marketing . With Cadillac on the verge of introducing a new model every 6 months that is going to be a huge job to market / advertise the ” new ” face of Cadillac thus repairing their image .
Book may be important to certain markets , but directing the brand which will be national as well as international is almost as important as the product developer . You will need to know everything about the new models to direct the advertisers as to what you want to convey to the public . Not selling leases to just a few customers .
To me it looks as if Melody lost a very important job and now has to get JDN’s approval on anything she wants to do .

Creating new industries is much more important than maintaining the status quo. This is an entirely new business model presumably at much higher margins that the 10% nonsense that automotive normally pulls. It could be more like Apple margins. Something that both Detroit and GM desperately need. It’s not looking in the rearview mirror, it is looking forward to the future. So, yeah…it’s important.

Does this mean that it will now take MORE than 10 years to turn the Cadillac brand around, now that Melody will no longer be in place to wave her magic wand of coolness? Just 9 months ago Melody said she was giving herself 10 years to turn the brand around. And that she didn’t buy products, she bought brands. And that she bought Apple products for no other reason than that they are “cool”. And that eventually customers won’t come in with a specific Cadillac to buy, they’ll just ask “which Cadillac should I buy?”. And that Cadillac will be the first premium brand that “just happens to sell cars”.

But all that “master plan” is gone now, with Melody now in charge of “book”? The most amazing thing is, how Melody got a prominent job in the first place. She’s got an academic background in “International Affairs” (whatever that is), and as far as I can tell she has zero accomplishments in business. She is very full of herself, but I’m not sure that’s something that looks good on a resume. Congrats to Melody, I guess, but how will Cadillac ever be “cool” – even in 10 years – without her guidance?

Couldnt have said it better myself. Melody is simply a certain “image” they are trying to project. Nothing to do with her skills, accomplishments, or actual results. There is another hidden team propping her up while she takes photos. If she was so good, why did they move her to Book so quickly?

“And that eventually customers won’t come in with a specific Cadillac to buy, they’ll just ask “which Cadillac should I buy?”. And that Cadillac will be the first premium brand that “just happens to sell cars”.

The key is to ID what the image of the group that has the money to buy want bestowed on them.

This will bring somethings we are not used to seeing from Cadillac.

Like the Escalade it is seen as a model that bestows a positive status image on the owner.

Ego sells as much or more product here than anything. People like owning the latest, biggest, brightest and most advanced products.

We see this in Cell Phones, houses, clothing, vacations etc.

We see it in music, tv, movies, sports etc.

How many 911’s are sold to people who never turned a wheel in anger. Most.

GM has done this with the Denali line as there is nothing really special with these models but the image to the public has them paying extra for a SLT with a little more chrome and a heated steering wheel.

I see it daily as people see my Denali and they go oh I can see who is making all the money. The truth is the one I bought has a discount to SLT prices or I would not have bought it.

The key moving forward is the image and it will take time and diligent marketing of the best products they can make be it a CUV or even EV car.